The following article has been wrtitten by CovSoc member and Chair of the Friends of Coventry Cathedral, Martin Williams, and first appeared in the Friends newslettter. Martin writes…..
The final phase of the Broken Angel project opens on the 1st November 2022, and will remain in place until the New Year.
For this Project three artists were invited to respond to the blank space left in John Hutton’s engraved west screen following the damage by vandals in January 2020. The last installation is by Abigail Reynolds, who has a studio in St Ives, Cornwall. She has been working on her installation with Coventry Young Carers and the Cathedral arts team.
In the new work, Abigail is thinking about the attempt to enter the sacred space of the Cathedral by breaking the glass screen. She re-imagines the broken panel as an opening door – an invitation to enter. Cleverly, the installation seems to move as you gaze upon it.
“The broken panel showed a traditional image of an angel in human form. An angel represents a portal to a different plane of consciousness and might also be imagined simply as an opening.
I am thinking of the shafts of light which pierce the sacred space of the Cathedral. They make slanting shapes on the tapestry wall, like opening doors that move with the light.”
Abigail has also displayed three other works within the Cathedral, that relate to the book held by the broken angel. They create different points of contact in the space of the Cathedral.
The Friends of Coventry Cathedral made a grant in support of the Broken Angel Project which was part of the Cathedral’s Rebuild Project during Coventry’s City of Culture Year.
Update on the Hutton Screen Cartoons
We recently reported on the campaign to raise funds to bring back to Coventry some original cartoons of the John Hutton window. Martin has informed us that the campaign has reached its target and the cartoons have been purchased. Plans are now in hand to bring them back to Coventry.